Bringing research into policy : understanding context-specific requirements for productive knowledge brokering in legislatures

This paper examines the influence of the institutional setting on knowledge brokering work in legislatures. We argue that legislative brokers face three specific challenges: heightened legitimacy requirements for the brokered knowledge, the need to cater for a wide range of topics and different audiences, and the need to compete with other suppliers of research. Based on the in-depth interpretive case study of the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, we develop a functional framework for productive in-house legislative knowledge brokering. We argue that in order to survive and strive in the challenging legislative science advisory ecosystems, knowledge brokers need to develop a broader range of competencies than brokers in government do, in particular, the ability to organise for impact of their work. This paper contributes to the view of knowledge brokering as the involved, strategic, context-dependent activity and offers lessons for practitioners to improve research utilization in legislatures.